"Hey remember when Rick Perry resigned as Energy Secretary right when the impeachment inquiry..."

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Rick Perry’s Ukrainian Dream

https://www.propublica.org/article/rick-perrys-ukrainian-dream

Rick Perry came to Washington looking for a deal, and less than two months into his tenure as energy secretary, he found a hot prospect. It was April 19, 2017, and Perry, the former Texas governor, failed presidential candidate and contestant on “Dancing With the Stars,” was sitting in his office on Independence Avenue with two influential Ukrainians. “He said, ‘Look, I’m a new guy, I’m a deal-maker, I’m a Texan,’” recalls one of them, Yuriy Vitrenko, then Ukraine’s chief energy negotiator. “We’re ready to do deals,” he remembers Perry saying.

The deals they discussed that day became central to Ukraine’s complex relationship with the Trump administration, a relationship that culminated in December with the House vote to impeach President Donald Trump. Perry was a leading figure in the impeachment inquiry last fall. He was among the officials, known as the “three amigos,” who ran a shadow foreign policy in Ukraine on Trump’s behalf. Their aim, according to the findings of the impeachment inquiry in the House, was to embarrass Trump’s main political rival, Joe Biden.

Alongside this political mission, Perry and his staff at the Energy Department worked to advance energy deals that were potentially worth billions of dollars to Perry’s friends and political donors, a six-month investigation by reporters from Time, WNYC and ProPublica shows. Two of these deals seemed set to benefit Energy Transfer, the Texas company on whose board Perry served immediately before and after his stint in Washington. The biggest was worth an estimated $20 billion, according to U.S. and Ukrainian energy executives involved in negotiating them.

If this long-discussed deal succeeds, Perry himself could stand to benefit: In March, three months after leaving government, he owned Energy Transfer shares currently worth around $800,000, according to his most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

*snip*

[Blue Owl]

1. K&R

[mr_lebowski]

2. Sounds like a great case for our next USAG ... perhaps ... a certain Mr. Schiff? nt

[dem4decades]

3. Does it matter? They all walk away and nothing ever happens to them.

I'm sick of waiting for them to pay a price for their corruption.

[a kennedy]

4. meanwhile folks that have been off from work due to Covid, GET NOTHING.....

“don’t want them to get used to these handouts”.

[Traildogbob]

5. Rand Paul Leslie Graham

Passionately opposed to help citizens. But both are on Putin pay roll and made visits to see uncle Putiie money bags in Russia, on our dime.

[DemUnleashed]

6. Let's Make This Easier

I think it would be easier to tell us who isn't corrupt among the rethuglicans rather than the other way around! Sheesh...I am sick for our country with all these corrupt republicans in the house, in the senate, in the administration, those that are governors, and those on the supreme court!

[crickets]

16. It would be much easier given how few there are in the 'not corrupt' pile.

Welcome to DU, DemUnleashed!

[Coyote45]

7. nevilledog

when you hire a lawyer you you need to pay the lawyer, they do not take for free. $$$

[Nevilledog]

8. Lucky for me I am a lawyer.

[JohnnyRingo]

9. What were those three departments Perry wanted to disband?

Education, energy, and I forget the other one... Oh yeah, the FBI.

[jayschool2013]

10. Kudos to WNYC and ProPublica

Great reporting

[Coyote45]

11. nevilledog

Well i am too, but retired. i wish i could do more.

[Nevilledog]

12. I'm also retired..... But we never stop our lawyerly thinking!

[Tanuki]

13. Oops!

[FakeNoose]

14. Wow, Rachel is on a ROLL!

Go Rachel! Get these bastards - get ALL of them!

[wiggs]

15. Remember when the bald EU ambassador guy testified at the impeachment hearings and said

his job was to go around the world and 'make deals'? Is this the kind of thing he meant...make deals for Trump and friends? No one could figure out why the EU guy was involved in Ukraine?

I don't remember there being any follow up to that...but I bet he knows a lot.

[UTUSN]

17. K&R